Monthly Archives: April 2012

When I talk about diversity and inclusion, or creating inclusive cultures where everyone can participate, to leaders and managers of projects and organizations here in the US, and elsewhere I often hear people say, either, “I treat everyone the same, or underneath we’re all the same.”

Everyone is not the same, and it’s impossible to treat everyone the same

Both of those statements are simply not true. Would you treat all of your friends and family exactly the same? Would you buy everyone the same gifts.or give everyone the same evaluation?

Do people in marketing have the same passion and interest and people in research?

I think that people who make these statements, are usually reluctant to recognize that in fact, we are different inside and out, in our communication styles, cultures, ages, work style, thinking, generations, etc.

I believe that underneath those statements is an implication that being different, from each other, or diversity in the workplace and the rest of our life is bad. If that were the case, we would never create new products, processes or improve, and we would spend all of our energy refusing to acknowledge who we are, and who everyone else is. That would be more stress than productivity, because we’d have to spend so much energy pretending not to see color, age, gender, or ethnicity.

Boring!

To paraphrase what Joan said to Lane on MadMen, being different is fine.

1- Understand your biases and don’t make assumptions. Most of the time you don’t know who is an LGBT person unless they tell you. LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) people span many dimensions of diversity in your workplace; generation, ethnicity, religion, work function, communication style, etc. 2- Know that LGBT people are not looking for… Continue Reading